LinkedIn.com

Jan

7th

2008

I joined the linkedin.com website/craze this weekend. I’m not really sure why. I was invited several months ago by a friend who is much more into the online social networking scene than I am, but it turned into one of those emails that slips down into the Inbox oblivion.

Anyway, something prompted me to join it this weekend, so I did. I was surprised to see all the people, or “connections” that I know who were already “linked”. It made me feel as though I had been missing out this whole time. I immediately sent out invitations to all those folks, plus a few more who are now wondering “what has Dave gotten me in to?”.

But, now that I’m linked in, what do I do? I’m not looking for a job, and don’t know many other electrical engineers who are. There’s the social pressure to keep growing your network…linkedin.com says I need 45 trustworthy connections in order to be fully linked in. Why 45? What if I only have 23, or 90? Is the “return” on being linked in directly related to the number of connections? When does it stop?

Are we at the point in society that the number of connections/friends listed in our LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, or other social networking sites determines our “successfulness”? I hope not. If so, I’m screwed.